This spring we took the leap and put our perfectly wonderful home on the market. To our surprise (and "oh crap!") our home sold in 24 hrs. We wanted to be ahead of the game when we found the next place - most buyers aren't comfortable accepting an offer from someone who still needs to sell their house - but 24 hrs. was faster than fast. As in we hadn't looked at a single potential new home, and had just hit the road for a spring break vacation in TX.

We tried not to freak out and simply be grateful that all those showings happened while we were far, far away. As soon as we got back to Ohio we jumped on the house hunt.

We were targeting a very small pocket neighborhood. The driving force behind this move was the desire to be closer to our school/church community. James' work has moved us quite a bit..from city to city, but also from house to house as we've settled into new cities. We want to give our family some much needed stability and we had a deep desire to invest in our community here for the long haul. The dream was to be walking distance to our church and school, but the available homes in that neighbor are few and far between. Most sell within a couple days of hitting the market and some never hit the market at all - they're simply passed down within the original owner's family.

So, we did a lot of praying, MLS stalking, and waiting. And the right house remained elusive. The only home that came up for sale already had a "sale pending" stinger when the sign went up in the yard. So, we expanded our search by a 5 mile radius. We saw some wonderful homes, but everything we looked at either didn't have the right space, had a wonky layout, screamed "money pit", or simply didn't feel like the right one.

With every home we saw outside of our desired neighborhood, James and I both felt God asking us to wait. And friends, patience is not my best virtue......which is probably why He asks me to wait so much.

We eventually hit the point where it would be impossible to close on a new house before the sale was final on our old place. Which meant a door-to-door move wasn't happening.

I hoped beyond hope that we would not have to find a temporary living solution between homes, but that's exactly what happened. And since I tried to wish reality into something else (fully in a state of denial), I pretty much shot myself in the foot when it came time to make housing arrangements. It's not easy to find a 3 bedroom place for a short term lease with zero notice. You're welcome, family.

I'm working on another post full of resources and tips for this type of scenario (obviously from a "do as I say, not as I do" standpoint), but for now I'm humbled to say that God provided a solution at just the right time...despite my inability to think/act as a responsible adult.

A 3 bedroom apartment became available through a corporate housing company and it's just 10 min from our new neighborhood. It's not perfect but it meets all our needs during the time we're waiting. There's lots of "togetherness" which sort of takes the typical summer bickering between siblings to another level, but escaping to the pool for swim team and afternoon dips has been our saving grace.

And what about a new home? Did we ever find anything?

We DID! And I can't wait to share the story with you!! We had to do some very uncomfortable work on our part, but man did God bless us beyond measure.

We're scheduled to close on the new place in a couple weeks. Hopefully everything goes smoothly and I can share all those details (and pics!) with you here soon. But for now, here's a peak...

In the meantime, we're trying to remember that we love each other as we survive our "cozy" temp quarters and are keeping busy dreaming up plans for the new place. It's such a different kind of gratitude when it comes to the gift of a forever home. I feel so overwhelmed by it.

I've been taking some time away from the computer this summer. Life's clearly been full of all things moving, but also tending to little people who are feeling a bit unsettled. Thankfully, as we get closer to move-in day, the excitement continues to build and the paperwork/appointments have slowed. I'm looking forward to putting more to internet paper as I can and you can catch updates over on Instagram and Facebook. Hope you're all having a great summer!